


Timelords and Other Fairy Stories

by melliyna



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Character Study, Fairy Tales, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-18
Updated: 2009-12-18
Packaged: 2017-10-04 14:09:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/31061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melliyna/pseuds/melliyna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What the Doctor really needed was Narnia</p>
            </blockquote>





	Timelords and Other Fairy Stories

  
  
  
**Entry tags:** |   
[character: donna](http://melliyna.livejournal.com/tag/character:+donna), [character: ten](http://melliyna.livejournal.com/tag/character:+ten), [fandom: doctor who](http://melliyna.livejournal.com/tag/fandom:+doctor+who), [fic](http://melliyna.livejournal.com/tag/fic), [fic: gen](http://melliyna.livejournal.com/tag/fic:+gen), [pairing: gen](http://melliyna.livejournal.com/tag/pairing:+gen)  
  
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_**Fic: Doctor Who: Timelords and Other Fairy Stories**_  
**Title:** Timelords and Other Fairy Stories  
**Author:** [](http://melliyna.livejournal.com/profile)[**melliyna**](http://melliyna.livejournal.com/)   
**Fandom:** Doctor Who  
**Pairing:** Gen (Ten and Donna)   
**Rating:** PG  
**Word Count:** 500  
**Disclaimer:** Belong to the BBC and RTD, not me.   
**Warnings/Timeline/Spoilers:** General for Season 3 and 4, some sap   
**A/N:** Because I love Ten, Donna and their friendship.   
**Summary:** What the Doctor really needed was Narnia

There are times when Donna feels that, well, what's really going on here is that she's ended up with a little brother, with all the magical powers that little boys dream about. Except they'd never want to get it, not if they really knew. And she's only glimpsed part of the story, the magic, horror and tears of this particular kind of fairytale. Even her granddad, with his dreams of stars only sees the magic and the lights.

Once Upon A Time...

She wonders sometimes, what stories they told on Gallifrey, when the Doctor had been a child. Whether he'd believed them, searched for some galactic equivalent of Narnia in his wardrobe. Donna wonders if Time Lords have wardrobes, as such. He's never really mentioned it, but then he doesn't mention much of Gallifrey except how it ends. Donna had always searched for Narnia. Even when she'd never found anything but her mums old shoes and scarves, pushed into a jumble at the back of a carpeted wardrobe that made Donna sneeze. Somehow, Donna had always known there was a secret relief at hitting those old shoes, feeling the carpet stop, just before the back of the wardrobe came up against her toes. It was always cold and solid. Real. Stable. But the mystery always remained, waiting for her to explore again, to imagine anew.

That's the problem, maybe. That Time Lords have no need of fairytales, because they know exactly what's at the back of that wardrobe. No mystery, just Narnia or the Faraway Tree, branches stretching up in to the clouds. And you had ladders to them all, so what was the point in telling stories about it. Because it's a lesson, just another aspect of time in all it's nightmarish brilliance.

A Long Time Ago, In a Far Away Land

Tocalfane. Tocs. Something that begins with T anyway. Apparently Gallifrey had a bogeyman too, little metal creatures beyond the walls of time and space. The Doctor tells Donna, one day, with an attempt at nonchalance that's almost painful. Because like everything he touches, it came true. Donna had a monster under her bed, at least until she determinedly vanquished it, after the monster stopped being interesting. And that's the thing, because the Doctor has monsters under his bed, in his mind but he never had the deep down certainty of any small boy, any child, that they aren't actually real, if you don't want them to be anymore.

"I had a friend once," he says to her, "He got scared by them, by the Tocalfane. Just like everyone did. Trouble is, my friend, he never stopped being scared."

He doesn't talk about it again.


End file.
